By the time the 10th Munich goal went in over the two legs, Arsene Wenger finally looked like a man who has had enough.

For 50 minutes, Arsenal had gone toe-to-toe with Germany’s European giants and sparked the belief that this time it could be different.

But even a sense of injustice over the harsh, goalline assistant -inspired sending off of Laurent Koscielny was not enough to disguise the truth.

The ease with which Munich rubber-stamped their authority once they had the extra man once again sparked mumbles of discontent, albeit with majority shareholder Stan Kroenke the target rather than Wenger, as had been anticipated.

Questions need to be asked at all levels, though, as to why Arsenal continually fail to measure up to their elite European peers because this was all so depressingly predictable.

A pattern that started in 2012 had looked on the cards the moment Arsenal capitulated so pathetically in Germany three weeks earlier.

Poor first legs against AC Milan, Munich a year later and Monaco in 2015 had led to brave second-leg against-the-odds displays that ultimately led to the Gunners falling agonisingly short.

Bayern Munich rubber-stamped their authority after Koscielny got sent off

That seemed to lift the whole stadium and moments later Walcott broke through the German defence and arrowed a shot inside Manuel Neuer’s near post to get the Arsenal faithful believing again.

At this point, Bayern Munich were rattled. TV replays showed Xabi Alonso just got enough of the ball to deflect strong shouts for a penalty and the usually composed Robert Lewandowski completely fluffed his shot when put clear through on a rare Munich attack.

Arsenal’s big failure, though, was not to get a second before the break, giving the German champions a chance to regroup in the sanctity of the changing room and take a little bit of the sting out of the Premier League side’s upturned tails.

Meanwhile, in the home changing room just along the corridor, the fragility that has been highlighted in recent weeks was about to cause an implosion.

Within four minutes of the restart Lewandowksi put the ball in the back of the net – fortunately for Arsenal, the eagle-eyed assistant spotted he had just strayed offside.